The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study. Read the story.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, author Erick Campbell said, “This is a whitewash- they took all of our science and reversed it 180 degrees.” Campbell is a former biologist with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
According to the original report, “The proposed action will have a slow, long-term adverse impact on wildlife and biological diversity in general.” This entire section was ultimately eliminated and, incredibly, BLM now says the new grazing regulations are in fact “beneficial to animals.”
The Administration has been widely condemned by the conservation community for this distortion of science and public participation. “The science was completely rewritten in order to cater to ranching interests,” said Bobby McEnaney, a grazing expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council. [2]
SOURCES:
[1] “Federal cattle grazing analysis called whitewash,” Los Angeles Times, Jun. 18, 2005.
[2] “New federal grazing rules will rip up public lands,” National Wildlife Federation, Jun. 16, 2005.